Samson V Maritime Museum

The Samson V, launched in 1937, is the last surviving wooden steam-powered sternwheeler built for the federal Department of Public Works for use as a snag-boat on the Fraser River. At 418 gross tons and 115’ on deck, she was the fifth in a series of similar vessels dating back to 1884 that cleared debris, maintained aids to navigation and government docks, performed surveys and served other functions as needed.

The Samson V was the last steam-powered sternwheeler to operate in Canada and representative of a long-standing federal government involvement in maintaining the waterways of western Canada. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada has declared the operation of sternwheeler snag-boats by the Department of Public works on the rivers of British Columbia an event of national historic significance and in the future intends to commemorate this by means of a plaque installed on or near the Samson V, “the last representative example” of these vessels.

The Samson V was retired in 1980 and sold to the City of New Westminster for one dollar on the understanding that the vessel would be preserved as a museum and that it occupy a unique place in the Province’s and City’s maritime heritage. The Samson V remains the only completely intact and floating wooden sternwheeler in North America.

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At the Bowen Island Community Museum you will discover Higgens Cabin, a 1948 period logger’s cabin with tools and period rooms. At the Canadian Museum of Flight you’ll find over 25 civilian and military jets, gliders, and helicopters. Victoria’s Craigdarroch Castle welcomes you inside a Victorian-era mansion. And at Fort St. James National Historic Site you’ll travel back in history inside a restored Hudson’s Bay Company post with 1896 living history guides all summer long.

Welcome to British Columbia’s museums and heritage sites. Historic telephones, arts and crafts, regional sports history, and natural history and much more await.